The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program under the direction of the inventor, Donald Alfred Skelton, a citizen of New Zealand. The seed parent is the unpatented, known commercial variety referred to as Actinidia deliciosa ‘Gracie’. The pollen parent is the unpatented, proprietary seedling variety referred to as Actinidia deliciosa ‘Blue’.
Fruit of the new variety was first evaluated in 2001 with favorable results. After the first evaluation, semi-hardwood cuttings were made of ‘MERLE’ and were grafted onto seedling rootstocks of A. deliciosa. Evaluation, asexual propagation and grafting all first took place at a research nursery in North Waikato, New Zealand. Subsequent evaluations of the variety have shown the characteristics to be true to type.